Thank the goddess that Slade was on my side.
There was another clank and creak as he tore metal away, and when his head jerked up and he stilled, I froze as well. “There’s only a few of them left in the house,” he finally said, and my pulse raced at the predatory tilt to his head.
I wasn’t the prey he tracked today, but my instinctive fight or flight response remained the same.
His eyes darkened, black threading through the green, and he jumped to his feet so fast that he was gone before I choked out a gasp. He moved like liquid, flowing from one spot to the next, and I wondered if my reflexes were even slower than I’d originally thought. Or was he just that much faster than a regular alpha? Either way, it threw me completely off balance.
“Now’s the time,” he said. “There aren’t enough left to stop me. I want you to wait here while I clear the path. I will call for you, Emmeline. Do not move until then.”
I opened my mouth to protest being left behind, but he was already up the freakin’ stairs.
In like, two seconds.
I really needed to add cardio into my daily life, but now was not the time to compare our abilities. Slade couldn’t… uh, there had to be shit he couldn’t do as well as me. Like… menstruate.
Yes!I was an expert at that, and speaking of, I was due any day, so it’d be excellent if that didn’t happen while I was in captivity. My periods usually knocked me down for at least a day with terrible bleeding and cramps, and there was no way to hide the scent of blood in a house of alphas.
Yeah, okay, so clearly I wasn’t even an expert at menstruation, but I was still better at it than Slade.
Shuffling closer to the base of the stairs, I peered up at the broken door and frame, the edge of the handle just in sight as it swung on one hinge. Straining to hear any sound or a scuffle, I was disconcerted by the eerie quiet keeping me company.
I’d just placed my foot on the bottom step when Slade appeared above.
“You might as well come up here,” he said shortly, and I wasted no time scurrying up the stairs, emerging into a small, old-fashioned kitchen with pink, white, and yellow flowered wallpaper and wood cabinets painted in a brighter yellow. “What happened?” I hissed, looking around for Blaine and the others, but the room was empty. The entire house felt empty.
Slade’s expression remained ten shades of pissed off, which unfairly only made him look hotter. His gaze moved toward the back door. “As soon as I emerged from the basement, the few remaining rats bailed, leaving the entire house locked down with magic. I checked every room, and we’re alone. This is just a larger prison, and I have no doubt they’ll be back soon with a big enough army to take me out.”
Fucking excellent.
“Okay, so is there any way for us to break through this magical lock before they return? How strong is it?”
When he exhaled, I was surrounded by the ashy sweetness of his scent and my knees weakened. I reached out, and as casually as possible, pressed my hand to a flowered panel of wall, needing the support. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice me using the house to prop myself up.
“Strong enough that this house had to be built with magic in its very foundation. Maybe in the soil beneath the foundation. I might be able to break through; it’s just going to depend on how much time we have before they return.”
I could work with that. “How can I help?”
He glanced around the small kitchen. “Search out food, anything with high protein and fats. I need to fuel my energy as I battle the magic. It will be draining.”
Having an actual way to help bolstered my mood, and I immediately headed for the fridge. “On it. You get to work figuring out how you’ll break us out of here, and I’ll figure out food.”
When I reached the ancient fridge, which would have been white at some point in its life but was now yellowed with age, I opened the door and got blasted with excessive cold air. The thermostat was out, but at least everything inside looked fresh.
“How did they even get access to all of this magic?” I asked as I yanked out the pound of beef strips and mince from the middle shelf, along with a bunch ofuselessvegetables, which I’d only use to bulk up the dish. Thankfully, there were at least a few potatoes, which made the green, purple, and orange produce look positively pathetic in comparison. When did purple carrots even become a thing? Their very existence was wrong. Along with orange ones.
When I mentioned as such to Slade, he almost cracked a smile. “Purple carrots are actually the heritage varieties, around a long time before the more modern orange.”
That made me dislike them even more. “So… what you’re saying is they’re the ones that started this nonsense with vegetables?”
With a shake of his head, Slade ignored my vendetta against vegetables and answered my question from before. “I’m not sure what connection they have to the magical community. My research didn’t indicate that these alphas were particularly exceptional in either the financial or dominance worlds.” He huffed, and I glanced over my shoulder to find him slamming his shoulder against the door. I paused my gathering of ingredients to observe him closer. “I’m searching for a weak point,” he explained, and I almost heard him over the sound of my ovaries weeping. In my fertile time, with my period approaching, and this god of a shifter smashing down walls, I was in a world of trouble. “There’ll be one somewhere, which is our best chance for a quick escape.”
Right,right.“Hope you find it soon,” I lied.
With a shake of my head, I left Slade to hisworkand started to open all the cupboards to find a large enough pot for the food. I also lucked out with a bag of rice and spices, and hoped I could pull it all together.
The cooktop was as ancient as everything else in the kitchen. The electric element took fifteen minutes to even start heating, by which point Slade had left the room.
I heard him banging on walls, and tried not to think about his muscled arms as he hoisted the house about. I focused on making this the best meal that I could. Frying up the vegetables in oil, I added salt and seasonings, before browning the meat. I finished with water and extra seasonings, letting it all simmer for a while. In another pot, I cooked rice to add to the dish.
